Medical & Security Clearances

It's just over four months since I passed the Foreign Service Oral Assessment. The next steps: once I get a Top Secret security clearance and a medical clearance for worldwide availability, my name will be listed on a rank-ordered registry of candidates who might get job offers with the State Department.

The medical clearance has involved a fair amount of work. Mine went through normally enough; there was a checkup at the DOS Clinic in DC, followed by an X-ray at an outside clinic, and after a couple months I had my clearance. Bongsu, however, had a bit more work to do because her hemoglobin count was low. Fortunately, just by taking over-the-counter iron supplements she seems to have brought it back up to well within the normal range, so we expect to get her clearance soon as well.

The security check has not involved so much work on my part; there was a long form to turn in on the day of the FSOA, including information about all the places I've ever lived and worked and the names of people who can verify them. The hardest part was letting my current boss and colleagues know that a federal investigator would be visiting the office to interview people about me. I had been a bit worried about how they would react to my pursuing a new career when I just started working here last December, but it turns out I needn't have been: my boss was very excited for me and totally supportive. She's even been involved in the security clearance investigations of other friends, so she knew something about the process. The investigator duly came back in June and talked with me for a while, then with my boss and another colleague for about ten minutes. Of course, I also had to inform everyone else who's ever known me that they might get a similar call; so far I have heard that investigators met with my parents, neighbors in Duck, various friends, Bongsu's family, and of course Bongsu herself in our brand new apartment. I also got a call at one point from the guy in New Hampshire who was trying to confirm my employment at the Highlander Inn (where I worked part-time, about ten hours a week, for just over a month right out of college). Apparently they had no record of me there, although I know I received a W-2 from them. I didn't hear back from that investigator again, so I assume he found someone who remembered me and checked off on that part of my background.

With luck, the next post on this page will be the news about the adjudication of my clearance. When both medical and security clearances are complete, the next step is something called a Final Suitability Review, which apparently is usually fairly quick, before being added to the registry.